This is Your Life, and it's Ending One Minute at a Time
by tencentsforadance
Summary: "With our luck, Frank'll outlast us all." It was a joke always passed out at parties. And of course you shouldn't joke about those types of things because it was just their luck that he actually does outlive them all.


**This is Your Life, and it's Ending One Minute at a Time**

Fiona used to always whisper and remind them, _fairy tales are for the movies, kid. _

**1. Fiona Gallagher, 35**

After Liam turned eighteen, it wasn't long before Fiona went too. She'd kept her semi-breakdown on the down low because Gallagher's are fucking tougher than crying in for no goddamn reason while washing the dishes and sadness that leaves you crippled and unable to get out of bed. But the truth she could barely admit to herself when she all she ended up with a too big and too empty home was that she didn't have a life outside of her damn kids. She had her GED but no job, a string of guys that flitted in and out of her life, and kids that were so busy living in all the ways she wanted them to that their visits became less and less frequent.

Lip's the one to find her, because it's not like he doesn't have enough angst, with her body crumpled on the floor like a wind-up toy that had finally given out. When the autopsy came back they said that she had a blood clot in her brain that it was only a matter of time, and none of them could have known. Of the six, she's the first to go, only thirty five years old.

**4. Lip Gallagher, 45**

Lip's sort of gets a life. He never ends up going to college, forever living in the Chicago slums, but eventually, after much trial and error, he ends up with a kinda nice girl and he's pretty sure that he manages to avoid passing on the Gallagher name, though he's never one hundred percent certain on that front. He holds down a steady job that's kind of shitty and he isn't really happy, but he's getting later and later into his forties, and who would be happy about that?

He's mugged one day while walking down to Walgreens to pick up some beer or maybe just some whiskey that he planned to use to drink himself to sleep and maybe one day his own death. But he doesn't drown in his own vomit, some fucking kids mug him and he tries to fight back but damn he's _tired_, not to mention old, and all they find is a crumpled ten dollar bill. The kids have a mean cold look in their eyes, the same that Lip used to carry when he'd been starved and beat down so he kind of understands. Anyway, the kids with their mean, hard eyes stab him right there in the middle of the fucking street and that's how he goes out- bleeding out, old and sad, not even bothering to call for help.

**2. ** **Ian Gallagher, 30**

Ian goes down just like everybody thought he would, though a lot later than expected. He gets out of Chicago and becomes some big time army sergeant or captain or some other fucking name that wasn't worth shit when his body was blown to bits by a road side bomb.

When Fiona died, the family came together, grieved together, and healed together. When Ian goes, nobody says anything, not a word.

**6. Debbie Gallagher, 73**

It's a bitter truth- Debbie ends up just like Fiona. She wanted to change the world, spread peace and let people have lives and childhoods like she never did. But it doesn't work out that way because somewhere along the way the light inside of Debbie went out, just like it does for every Chicago street rat and she ends up doing jack shit.

She pops out some kids with a couple of different guys that don't stick around but she still loves every one of her kids with every fucking fiber of her being, and she makes damn sure they all get to have a childhood that doesn't resemble the one she had. Just like Fiona. Except when her last kid leaves her for college, her job isn't over because of course Frank sticks around. And she's always had a soft spot for him and anyway he's older than dirt now, he should be kicking the bucket any day now, so she tends and cares to him until her dying day. It takes Frank four full days to notice.

**Carl Gallagher, 24**

Carl dies the same year as Ian. He gets caught up in stupid shit, dealing a little and doing a lot. But it's never anything serious, not anything he couldn't handle. Until it is.

He falls in love with some chick called Cynthia _hard. _She's pure and good and so much better than him that Carl tries to back out of some deal he got caught up in and no one cares at first but when he stops fucking around, the fucking parasites of Chicago south side get paranoid. Word gets around that Frank's kid is acting weird, and people think he's a cop or, even worse, a snitch. He gets caught up in some hairy situations- cornered in an alley; someone even follows him to his own fucking home once. But he doesn't mind he likes having a reason to kick somebody's ass even though he's never really needed one before.

Some meth head does him in, Carl had once sold him some shit, and he can't even remember what, and he kind of finds that hilarious as the junkie hits him in the head again and again with a baseball bat. He dies with a smile on his face, though you can't really tell or even recognize his face for that matter.

(It's kind of sad and kind of poetic. No one knew that Carl was trying to change, trying to get his shit together over a fucking girl. Most assume it was a deal that went south and left it at that. Another fuck up, another Chicago street rat.)

**5. Liam Gallagher**

It's no surprise that Liam ends up with a quasi-normal life. He doesn't really get out of Chicago, but he gets and keeps his life together for the most part. Finds a nice girl, has a couple of kids; the only Gallagher to pass on the family name.

He's the baby of the family, and doesn't have to share as much for as long like the rest of his siblings. He's a good kid and when it ends up just being him and Fiona he stays good, for her. But that's how he grows up; it's not the same when he becomes a man with a little bit of a temper and a scary look in his eye. He's fighting with his wife, Cara, vein throbbing in his head; spit flying out of his mouth when he goes down. Too much stress, too much eating, cholesterol, blood pressure, and most likely a little too much Frank and Monica is what gets him in the end.

**7. Frank Gallagher, 107**

_With our luck, Frank'll outlast us all._

It was a joke always passed out at parties. And of course you shouldn't joke about those types of things because of fucking course he actually does outlive them all. It's supposed to be against the laws of nature, for a parent to bury their child, but Frank manages to show up to all six funerals completely wasted and manages to get a punch to the nose every damn time. The laws of nature are supposed to protect parents from burying their children, but they never did shit when Frank tried to sell Debbie for a night or the time he beat the shit out of Ian, damn near killing him. The laws of fucking nature seem to have let him have a free pass most of his life, but they don't let him get away with going peacefully in his sleep or some shit. Over a hundred years old and he still fucks around with shit he shouldn't, with the kind of people that don't have mercy, even for an old man. So it's long and slow and painful and screw the movies _it hurts a lot,_ and he screams the entire time screaming and writhing, begging to stay, that he's _so sorry_. The last thing in Frank Gallagher's mind is that all his kids went out peacefully, or so the doctors said, and he thinks about is maybe this is some kind of penance.


End file.
